Anderson’s Birthday Celebrations

On Friday, Anderson and I made a cake to bring to TGT to celebrate his birthday.  First, he was disappointed that he didn’t get to eat it right away, but we got past that.  After dinner the kids all gathered and started to sing Happy Birthday to Anderson…unfortunately, Anderson did not like the attention one bit and quickly ran from the table out onto the football pitch (soccer field).  We coaxed him back with sparkling candles. 

The kids (especially Ron and Anderson) enjoyed the cake.

Best quotes from his birthday on Friday:

Tierney:  “I didn’t know you could make frosting”

Cole (about Anders turning 3): “Now he talks gooder”

The real celebration was on Sunday when we gathered a few friends and went to Maji Moto. 

It’s amazing how quickly this:

  

turns to this:

This time we got a little bit braver and swam down the river (in above pic it’s center top).  We’d heard about how it opens up into another huge pool, so wanted to check it out.  Keep in mind that there are urban legends surrounding maji moto that a tourist was eaten by a crocodile many years ago, so it takes on a different feeling swimming down a reed filled river into the unknown.  The current is strong, but we made it and it was gorgeous.  Quiet and peaceful.  It’s probably 2 times as large as the pool above that we normally swim in.  The water is crystal clear and the bottom looks like a giant sand crater.  Matt and Tierney even saw a turtle swimming. 

Birch jumping from a tree

Present and cupcake time!

   

Ellesmere declared it “The Most Fun She’s Ever Had In Her Entire Life”, so I’ll call that a successful day.

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, ANDERSON!

Happy 3rd Birthday Anderson

Tanzanian Birthday Parties

The girls went to a 6th birthday party at the Meserani Snake Park for a good friend of theirs.  Not exactly Build-A-Bear, but I think they had fun ;)

And Ashlyn’s homework reading might leave her a little confused when we return to the US.

Our tough girly, girl

I love that she’s practicing with her bow and arrow while dressed in her pink cheerleader outfit (she did hit the cup again!).

High School Musical (I’m not ready for this)

I really tried to get a video of her singing into the mirror, but she got a little self conscious.  There are two of these songs that are the same on the soundtrack, so I heard the two in a row and asked T “Isn’t this the same song as the last one?”.  T (complete with eye-roll) “Mom, that one was Ryan and Sharpay and this one is Troy and Gabriella”.  Geez, I guess I have a lot to learn.

Camping: Lake Eyasi

I’m sure, since you are all diligent readers, that you’ll recall our visit 6 months ago to Lake Eyasi where we did a visit to with the Hadza and had a great time.  Since we had such a great time, we decided to head back there for one last outing before school started.  It was much hotter and wetter this time, with associated bugs and mud to match, but the campsites are great and shaded and have a water faucet, outhouses, showers and access to the Kisima Ngeda lodge swimming pool.  Also, Matt and our friend Clint were lucky enough to be able to go out for a morning hunting trip with the Hadza (hopefully I can get him to write up his experience).   We had a great weekend hanging out with friends, going for walks, swimming (in the lodge pool and not in the alkaline lake) and fishing.  The rain came only while we were sleeping and the tiny, tiny ants that got into everything (i.e. inside closed parmesan cheese in the coolers, inside unopened bread in storage crates, etc) did no serious harm.  Kids came home tired and cranky, so they must have had a good time. 

On the drive out we had a great view of Lake Manyara National Park and the Great Rift Wall.  When we hit the town of Karatu (the kicking off point for the Ngorongoro Crater), we took a left turn and drove down a bumpy dirt road for ~18 miles which took over a hour and a half (pic below is where the road was still smooth) to Kisima Ngeda and Lake Eyasi.   I found it interesting that there are little mud houses and churches with no water or electricity, yet in the same village there’s a store with a satellite dish.

 

The morning that the guys went out hunting with the waHadzabe, Kati and I decided to take the kids out on a little walk which turned into an adventure very quickly.  We hit a point where the dry sand turned to mud.  And not just regular mud, but the kind that within two steps turns your shoes into platform shoes. It didn’t take too long to give up on the shoes and go barefoot.   I was hoping to make it out to see the flamingos, but we didn’t exactly make it that far. We did have a good time though.  I think Ash might have a little crush on Jack (5) and Anders on Acacia (3) … Ashlyn assures me that Tyson (from The Cottage School in Boulder) is still her boyfriend though. 

 

Back at our spacious campsite we were frequently visited by the resident vervet monkeys during the day and bush babies at night. 

 

We also spent some time fishing in the little ponds on-site (thanks to Jack for being so generous about sharing his fishing rod with all the girls).  T and A both caught fish - although they weren’t all very big it was still fun.

  

The girls also got their very first bow and arrow sets.  Tierney was doing some secret practice and managed to hit the can off the stick several times when no one else was able to hit it at all (kid handicap in full-effect).  The first thing they wanted to do when we got home was to set up a target of their own at home. (There really is no ‘arrow’ on the bow and arrow - just whittled wood…still wouldn’t want it to hit me though).  If you are wondering, that is baboon fur decorating the bows that were made by the local Hadza. 

Next visit, the grown-up girls get first dibs on the Hadza hunting trip.        

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School started without a hitch today and it’s good to be back in a routine.  Two new American families arrived in the last week or so and started school with the girls today.  I can remember, all to well, what we were going through just one year ago with new schools and, well, new everything.  I’m certainly happy to be where we are now instead of back there, but I wouldn’t change the experience for anything.

Last week of school holiday

Since we are all starting to get a little tired of each other three weeks into the four week school holiday, we are trying to get out of the house a little bit.  One night we took Mimi and Poppi out for sundowners.  Although I think they doubted our ability to find a suitable spot (after a few attempts of driving down footpaths instead of real roads…well, I guess ‘real’ in Tanzania is very subjective anyway), we finally got to a nice overlook with a nice view of Mt. Meru.  We packed a light dinner and drinks and were kept entertained by the kids playing with the village kids and cattle.  I still think we are all excited for school to start on Monday.

 

Matt and I also were able to sneak out for a date night and went out for drinks and the new fancy hotel in town (Mt. Meru Hotel) and then out for a nice dinner at The Bay Leaf.  Is it a sad state that one of the highlights of the evening was watching a termite hatch or just an indication that we’re both geeks?  Watch closely at the ground and you can see their wings appear from nowhere and then they fly away.  We’ve seen newly hatched termites swarm right after a rain, but we’d never seen them coming directly from the ground.  It really was cool. 

We’ve heard that there is going to be another rally in town tomorrow (yet another national holiday…Zanzibar Revolution Day), so we’re hoping for a peaceful protest and not a repeat of last week’s incident.  I’m avoiding town tomorrow just in case. 

Arusha violence

Interesting week in Arusha. While the elections at the end of October went off rather peacefully, there are still tensions between the ruling party (CCM) and the opposition party (Chadema).

We are all fine and everyone we know is fine. Lisa was driving through town on Wednesday morning to do a typical grocery run and saw police wearing riot gear and speeding around town in trucks. Later that day, we started receiving text messages to avoid town and that all roads in and out of town were closed.

There was an opposition party rally that turned violent with police shooting live bullets into crowds of protesters in Arusha town. The local papers report 2 deaths, the word on the street is 10 deaths with about 40 injured. Whatever the number of injured and dead, it is bad thing for Arusha and for Tanzania. All the old timers who we know and saw last night at the weekly Friday night expat pilgrimage to TGT said they have never seen anything like this before in Tanzania.

The rally was organized by the opposition party to protest corruption of the ruling party and seeking Kikwete to step down arguing that the elections results were not counted accurately. Part of me thinks this is healthy because it's an indicator that Tanzania is moving closer to a true multi-party system. But obviously the violence and strong military reaction from Government is alarming at the least.

Article from the Daily Nation:
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/Arrest%20of%20Tanzania%20leader%20sparks%20protest%20/-/1066/1084566/-/bcdjpdz/-/index.html

BBC Article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12126861

Mkokoteni

Mkokoteni or wheelbarrow or handcart….whatever you call it, it’s a brilliantly simple design that moves anything that needs moving.  It’s built much like one of our typical wheelbarrows, but the ‘brakes’ are just old tires attached to the bottom, so that it can be dragged when it’s necessary to slow down or stop.  You can only imagine how difficult it might be to slow down hundreds of pounds of cement bags as you are going down a hill.  Between the daladalas and the mkokoteni, driving in Arusha is an adventure. 

     

  And my favorite two…the first one just because it also captures the guy on his pikipiki (motorcycle) with passenger talking on a phone and the second because how can you beat a mkokoteni transporting a daladala frame.